I'm so happy the update is finally here, and released one day before my birthday no less! It looks great, and I'm even more eager for the easier tweaks to come as a result of the overhaul. It looks like the core mechanics are kept mostly intact, and ducks feel faster to execute, but I noticed right away how much less responsive punches feel. At first I thought it was intentional, but it's probably just buggy. I guess that's inevitable with an update this big so don't get discouraged. The new features are mostly great but a few of them missed me. I was never a big fan of hit "sparks", but sweat and drool work well to the same effect. I'll dump my full feedback below.
Bugs:
-When starting a match, my controls are disabled until I pause and unpause the game. This can go for several rounds until I fix it.
-Even with music enabled, it will stop playing on the title screen if I do a match and return.
-The UI for the options menu will reflect selections inaccurately, i.e. they appear enabled when they are disabled.
-CPU vs CPU has like a 90% win rate for CPU 1. CPU 2 seems to just guard most of the time.-The input repeat speed is incredibly slow and inconsistent. Whether using gamepad or keyboard, holding an input, mashing, or just trying to string together fast combos results in random, intermittent timings between repeat punches. The game takes too long to register my actions and leaves my defenses open. With such brief windows of opportunity, the inputs should be precisely timed, especially to take advantage of guard breaks. I wouldn't mind a single action per input though, as long as it's honest and responsive.
[edit] I hadn't realized that the inputs were dropping because the opponent was blocking. I'd like to be able to keep punching during their block without having to mash the input though. That feature also makes the game drop my combos when I try to jab+hook. It's frustrating and kinda feels like training wheels. Any chance we can disable it in settings?
[re-edit] Actually the game just hates when I queue my next punch during the current one instead of waiting for the animation to finish. It's probably to prevent mashing, but there must be some compromise there. I feel like I'm being punished for knowing what move I wanna do next. Feelsbadman.
Recommended tweaks:
-Context-sensitive action speed. Repeat punches on the same arm should be slower than left/right combos. Jab-into-hook should flow together nicely. Whiffing a punch could add a slight delay to reward ducking and make it safer to do a follow up attack after a successful duck.
-Punch stamina, as mentioned by Treblegne. This is more important than a guard meter IMO as it balances jab spam, whereas block spam is already punishable with chip damage. But to simplify, it could be a generalized stamina bar which is affected by blocking punches as well as throwing them. Maybe ducking also, idk. Maybe use stamina instead of action speed to balance mashing. Or both!
Thanks for all the care you put into this game so far! It's shaping up nicely. I'll save the rest of my input for another post below, as it's just my pipe dreams and I don't want to overwhelm/discourage you with expectations.